Stage Two: Kirkmichael to Spittal of Glenshee Place Names ......Enochdhu to the Spittal of Glenshee...

Stage Two: Kirkmichael to Spittal of Glenshee Place Names of the Cateran Trail

Dr Peter McNiven

Kirkmichael to Spittal of Glenshee

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PLACE NAMES OF THE CATARAN TRAIL DR PETER MCNIVEN CONTENTS Section 1: Introduction ....................... page 1

Language ........................... page 3

The Caterans ..................... page 4

People ................................ page 6

Places ................................ page 6

Landscapes ...................... page 8

Section 2: Place Name Index ............ page 10

Bibliography ..................... page 21

COVER: Caulfeild Military Bridge at Glenshee by Clare Cooper


The Grave of Diarmid four poster stone circle and the farmstead at Bad an Loin in Glen Shee., photo © Perth & Kinross Heritage Trust

FOREWARD The Cateran Trail is one of Scotland’s great long-distance footpaths. Fully waymarked, its circular 64-mile (103-km) route through Eastern Perthshire and the Angus Glens follows old drove roads and ancient tracks across a varied terrain of farmland, forests and moors. Some of the routes follow those used by the Caterans, the name given to the Highland cattle raiders who were the scourge of Strathardle, Glenshee and Glen Isla from the Middle Ages to the 17th century, and after whom the trail is named. This booklet is the second in a series detailing new research on the place names of the Cateran Trail. Each follows one of its five stages and begins with an introductory essay followed by a place name index. There is also one for the shorter ‘mini’ Trail. The research was commissioned by Cateran’s Common Wealth, a locally-led initiative which is using the Cateran Trail as a stage for a multi-year programme of diverse arts, cultural and heritage activities and events aimed at inspiring people to think about and celebrate our ‘common wealth’, the things that belong to all of us.

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Place-names matter. If there are any doubts about that statement, imagine trying to travel anywhere in the world without them; try booking flight from 55°57'00" N, 003°22'21" W to 51°28'39" N, 000°27'41" W. How much simpler is it to say you want to go from Edinburgh Airport to London Heathrow? For most of us place-names are merely words, often incomprehensible, on maps or road-signs indicating where a place is in the world. Some place-names have special resonance for people; for example, their home town or village, a place where they spent a special holiday or occasion, or perhaps they just delight in the sound of the name – many Scots like how ‘Scottish’ places such as Auchtermuchty or Ecclefechan sound, and can take great delight in their mispronunciation by non-Scots speakers.

Place-names, however, meant something to the people who originally coined them. Once we crack the code, as it were, we can discover a great deal about the landscape in which the place-name is situated. Place-names are a window through which we can glimpse Scotland’s past. They contain a large amount

of information about such topics as people, the landscape, how that landscape was used, belief, and of course language. For place-names are words and once we can understand what a place-name means we can begin to use it to tell us about the past.

The Upper Lunch Hut on the Cateran Trail walking from Enochdhu to the Spittal of Glenshee photo George Logan

Place-names can be a great aid in helping historians and archaeologists understand rural settlement and society in the Middle Ages and beyond to the cusp of the Agricultural Improvements and Industrial Revolution in Scotland in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Not only do they give us clues to landscape use, but they also indicate important religious and social organisation that

would otherwise have gone unrecorded. Place-names are very much an under-utilised resource for Scottish history, but can be said to be one the main resources for the study of important questions, such as those relating to the Picts. However, one of the problems we face is that Scotland is very limited when it comes to how many counties have had their place-names closely scrutinised. Scotland lacks the intensive surveys of England and Ireland, particularly the Republic of Ireland.

Research in place-name involves looking for their earliest spellings. The reasoning is that the earlier the spelling the closer we are to the language spoken when the name was first coined. For example, Pictish is generally thought to have died out by around the year 900. There are few Pictish place-names along the Cateran Trail, the language having been replaced by first Gaelic, perhaps around 900 to 1000, and then Scots which probably began to make inroads into the area when the monks of Dunfermline, Scone, and Coupar Angus Abbeys were granted lands in Strathardle and Glenisla from the mid twelfth century. The Keith, near Blairgowrie, is probably from Pictish *cēt ‘a wood’, related to Welsh coed ‘a wood’. The name does not come on record until the sixteenth century, but that is still four centuries

INTRODUCTION


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closer to Pictish being spoken than we are today. Researchers look at various material for early spellings, including old maps, the earliest detailed of which are Timothy Pont’s maps dating to the 1590s. Other useful maps are William Roy’s Military Map (1747-53), James Stobie’s Map of the Counties of Perth and Clackmannan (1783), and John Aislie’s Map of the County of Forfar or Shire of Angus (1794). While these maps are very useful, they are not as accurately drawn as the Ordnance Survey maps which only started in the early nineteenth century, and did not reach Perthshire and Angus until the 1860s. It is from the Ordnance Survey that we get the majority of our current spellings of place-names.

Glenshee Kirk, photo Clare Cooper

Prior to the arrival of the Ordnance Survey there was no system of standardised spelling of place-names; indeed, standardised spelling only arose in the nineteenth century with the appearance of mass produced newspapers and compulsory education. It is not unusual while looking at medieval documents for the place-name researcher to find two or more different spellings for the same place in the one sentence! Nevertheless, old documents are where most of the early spellings of place-names are to be found and there are a myriad of different documents.

Generally, however, they fall into a small number of types, including: charters granting or exchanging land; rentals of land; wills and testaments; travellers’ and ministers’ accounts; letters and recollections. All of these can be further sub-divided into royal, ecclesiastical, and private. All this affects how early and how often which names appear on record.

Many Pictish and Gaelic place-names only appear on record due to the modern map makers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The reason is in part due to the survival of records (they can be lost, among other reasons, due to war, fire, rot, rodents, and damp) and in part due to who the landowner or landholder was. The medieval

church was very jealous of its possessions and often kept detailed records of their properties, the records of Coupar Angus Abbey are particularly useful for the Glenisla stages of the Cateran Trail. However, not all of the church records will have survived the tribulations of the Protestant Reformation of the mid sixteenth century. Royal records, such as charters, can sometimes be dated back to the reign of David I (1124-53), but here the records are not so detailed. Strathardle was granted to Scone Abbey in David’s reign, but we are given no information regarding the settlements in Strathardle until the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries. Royal records can go missing too, often due to war, or accident (in 1661 many Scottish records were lost when the ship carry them sank off the English coast. The records were being returned to Edinburgh after they had been taken to London by Oliver Cromwell).

There are many documents of private landowners held in the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh (along with royal and ecclesiastical records), but they are often not published like the royal and ecclesiastical records, while others are in the hands of individuals or companies which can make access difficult. The most useful private records for the Cateran Trail are those relating to the


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Invercauld estate for Glenshee and the Ramseys of Bamff for the areas around Bamff and Alyth. Hill-names only generally come on record from the time of the Ordnance Survey, although some of the bigger or more prominent hills, such as Mount Blair, can be found on Pont and Stobie.

Underpinning all this, of course, is language. Gaelic predominates along the Cateran Trail. Not only is it the original language of most of the settlement names, but is the language of the majority of relief features such as hill and river-names. Pictish, or at least Pictish influence is only present in a few important places, including Strathardle, Alyth, Cally, The Keith, Mount Blair, possibly Rochallie, and probably Forter. Persie within Glenshee may also be Pictish. Scots and Scottish English have a sizable presence, mainly in some settlement- names and a small number of hill and stream- names. In the late eighteenth century the area was still mainly Gaelic speaking. The Rev. Allan Stewart, minister for Kirkmichael, wrote in the 1790s that: ‘the prevailing language in the parish is the Gaelic.

A dialect of the ancient Scotch, also, is understood, and currently spoken. These two, by a barbarous intermixture, mutually corrupt each other. All the names of places are Gaelic’. This ‘intermixture’ is noted in Kilmadock parish, in southern Perthshire where it was stated that Gaelic was corrupted by its vicinity to Scots, and in Glenshee this ‘corruption’ of Gaelic was probably the result of the interaction of two distinct linguistic communities lying on the border of Highland Glenshee and Lowland Strathmore with its trading centres such as Blairgowrie and Coupar Angus, who were both linked to Dundee and Perth.

Old Whisky Still, photo, Bob Ellis

It is also the case that place-names don’t just tell us what language was spoken in an

area, but can, sometimes, tell us about changes in pronunciation within a language. There was a change in Gaelic pronunciation in words beginning cn, which seems to have taken place in the early modern period. The change from /n/ to /r/ in Gaelic words beginning cn or gn is ‘comparatively late’ according to Thomas O’Rahilly, a prominent Irish scholar; he suggested the change took place in Scotland by the mid-sixteenth century or later. Crock in Glenisla reflects modern Gaelic pronunciation of cnoc, and means that the representation of this spelling, Crock rather than Knock, on a modern map indicates that Gaelic was still being spoken in this part of the Angus Glens in the mid to late sixteenth century. About 4 km to the north-west of Crock is a hill called The Knaps and is presumably pronounced similar to English naps. The name derives from Gaelic cnap ‘knob, lump, little hill’. Cnap in modern Gaelic is pronounced krahp. So the fact that The Knaps is so spelled probably means we should view this hill being named before the sound change occurred. However, from the late 1400s many Gaelic names contain Scots prefixes, such as Litle Fortyr and East Innerherraty, suggesting that Gaelic was probably extinct in Glen Isla as the naming language at least among the landlords.

LANGUAGE


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Place-names can give an indication of an area’s past landscapes, whether natural or human influenced; past social organisation and land divisions can be revealed; beliefs, both religious and mythical are contained in the names of many features, whether they be hills, burns or vegetation.

Sheep Sheering in Glenshee, photo, courtesy of the Laing Photographic Collection

Indeed, so varied are the topics for place-name research that a recently published book on the Gaelic landscape by John Murray gives the following categories for looking at place-names in the landscape: landforms – mountains, hills, passes, hollows, valleys; hydronomy (river and loch-names); climate, season, sound and time; land-cover and ecology – flaura and fauna; agriculture – crops, domestic and farm animals; buildings and

settlement; church and chapel; cultural artefacts; people and occupations; events; legend and the supernatural. All of these categories can also be described in terms of colour, pattern, texture, form, size and position, and through metaphor using the anatomy of the whole human body. Many, if not all these categories can be found along the Cateran Trail and the surrounding area. Here, however, we will concentrate on the themes of the Cateran Trail project – People, Places, and Landscapes.

The Cateran Trail is itself now a place-name. The trail was opened in the summer of 1999; the word cateran, however, dates back to at least the late fourteenth century. Cateran derives from a Gaelic word ceatharn meaning ‘warrior’, but usually one that is lightly armed. In the Lowlands cateran came to epitomise Highland violence, and is indicative of a Lowland perception of a particularly Gaelic Highland problem. Caterans have come to our notice because throughout the Middle Ages, and up until shortly before the Jacobite risings of the eighteenth century, the records of the Scottish government bristle with complaints

about the activities of the caterans. In the fourteenth century the problem became so acute that a council decided that caterans should be arrested or killed on sight.

Caterans first come on record in the 1380s at a time of trouble and rebellion in Moray, led by the son of Robert II, Alexander Stewart, earl of Buchan, better known as the Wolf of Badenoch. In 1385 it was said that there was a ‘lack of justice in the higher and northern regions, where many malefactors and caterans are roaming’. Raids by the Wolf of Badenoch occurred throughout Moray leading to the burning down of Elgin cathedral in 1390, the culmination of a dispute with the bishop of Moray. However, these cateran raids also spread to Angus and Perthshire. In 1392, Buchan’s sons led a raid into Angus, causing, according to one medieval chronicler ‘grete discorde’, and which led to a pitched battle between the caterans and forces headed by Sir David Lindsay of Glenesk. The battle is variously said to have been at Glasclune near Blairgowrie or at Dalnagairn in Strathardle. The caterans eventually fled the field of battle. They were to cause problems in the area over the next two centuries. In 1602, it was reported to the Privy Council by the ‘good subjects’ of Strathardle, Glenshee and Glenisla that a

THE CATERANS


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group of 200 persons ‘all thieves and sorners1 of the Clan Chattane and Clan Gregour, and all Donald McAngus of Glengarry’s men, armed with bows, habershons, hagbuts and pistolets, came to Glenyla, and there reft all the goods within the said bounds, consisting of 2700 nolt (Scots - cattle; oxen, bulls and cows, collectively), 100 horses and mares, with the plenishing of the country’.

The caterans were pursued by the inhabitants of the area and were partially defeated at the Cairnwell Pass north of Spittal of Glenshee. In the 1650s, the MacDonalds of Glencoe, among others, raided the earl of Airlie’s lands in Glen Isla and neighbouring Glen Prosan in Angus; they had been given information by John MacCombie of Forter. Although prosecuted by the earl of Airlie, the long drawn out legal process eventually petered out.

The caterans continued their activities and in 1667 stole a horse and 36 cattle from Airlie’s estates, but eventually with the assimilation of the clan chiefs into the wider Scottish and British governing class came better law enforcement and control of the Highlands and led to the demise of the caterans. 1 Sorner: A person who exacts free quarters and provisions by threats or force, as a means of livelihood.

A Cateran in Glenshee by Kevin Greig staneswinames.org

But what gave rise to the caterans and why did they attack places like Glenshee, Glen Isla and Strathardle? Given that the cateran raids begin, so far as we are aware, after the mid-fourteenth century, one Scottish historian has highlighted reasons including the aftermath of the wars with England, plague, and environmental factors, such as climate change; it became wetter and colder from about 1315. All this meant both a fall in population and greater difficulty in raising crops in an area (i.e. the Highlands) that was always marginal. There were two alternative ways of making a

living – herding cattle and raiding. Although the glens of Strathardle, Glenshee, and Glen Isla were Highland areas, with all the accoutrements of medieval Highland life, including Gaelic speakers and a mainly pastoral economy, these glens were in fact Highland extensions of nearby Lowland estates, with many of the lands belonging to either the crown, prominent Lowland families, or to the medieval church in the shape of monastic institutions, especially Coupar Angus, Scone, and Dunfermline Abbeys. Cattle were easier to move than large quantities of grain, and in pre-industrial times cattle were a source of wealth. From cattle are derived the more obvious items, such as milk, cheese, and butter, but also their fat for making candles and their hides for leather. We can get an idea of how rich in pastoral resources the area was from rentals, such as those of Coupar Angus Abbey who held much of Glen Isla. The settlement of Dalvanie in 1556, for example, had to provide 40 non-milk producing cows and pay 2 ½ stones of cheese and ½ stone of butter per year as part of its rental.


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Stage 2 begins in Kirkmichael. People have worshiped at Kirkmichael (Kylmichel in 1274) for many centuries. It is not known exactly when the church of Kirkmichael was founded, but it was certainly before 1183 when the church of Strathardle is granted to Dunfermline Abbey by Willaim I.

Kirkmichael Kirk Churchyard, photo, Clare Cooper

The church had been dedicated to Michael by 1274. In addition, there was an apdaine (abbethayn) at Kirkmichael mentioned around 1279. There was also an apdaine at Blairgowrie, and this is an indication that an earlier institution existed prior to the reorganisation of the Scottish church initiated in

the early twelfth century by the immediate predecessors of David I (reigned 1124-53). The local Gaels may have called it Cill Mhìcheal (Gaelic cill means ‘church’); the name Kirkmichael is most likely due to the influence of the monks of Dunfermline who would have been Scots speakers. Michael is one of three archangels, and is far more popular in place-names that Gabriel or Raphael. Michael was held by the pre-Reformation church to have been the defender of the Church, and chief opponent of Satan; and who assists souls at the hour of death. His feast day is 29th September, and in a field near Kirkmichael the Michaelmas fair was held on that day.

The church at Kirkmichael would have been the focal point for the local community; here would have been held the rites of the various stages of life and death – baptism, marriage, and burial. The village of Kirkmichael seems also to have been the centre of the local market and in later times it was the meeting point for drovers on their way to markets in the south.

Nearby is a field called Bannerfield, which was the site of the meeting of the earl of Mar and Marquis of Tullibardine and their men who raised their banner at the start of the 1715 Jacobite Rising. The medieval church was replaced by current church which was built in

1791. Near the church is the Priest’s Well, a natural spring.

Across the River Ardle from Kikrmichael is Balnakilly ‘farmtoun of the church’. Anyone travelling along the road through Glenshee would have welcomed the sight of Spittal of Glenshee. It was probably not, as some believe, a medieval hospital. This was a hospice for travellers on the road from Blairgowrie in Lowland eastern Perthshire to Braemar in Highland Deeside. There was another hospice or inn between Deeside and the Angus Glens at Spittal of Glenmuick, a hospice on the road from Glen Clova in Angus to Ballater in Aberdeenshire.

However, the element spittal can be confusing, as it is evidence for the existence of either a hospital (i.e. a medical facility), lands associated with a hospital, or an inn for travellers; in the earldom of Lennox spittal was used for properties belonging to the Knights Hospitaller, a military order like the Knights Templar.

Further upstream from Kirkmichael is Milton of Balvarran. A Milton is the fermtoun of the local

PEOPLE

PLACES


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mill, and indication that arable farming took place and mills were an important source of baronial income and the miller was often resented by the local populace because they were obligated to take their grain to the miller and often had to pay a heavy tax or multure to have the grain ground into meal. However, Balvarran, now a large house nearby, started off as a pit-name for it was called Pitverren in 1641. This change from pit– to bal– (Gaelic baile) has been found to be common in other parts of Scotland, particularly Fife. It is probably best explained by the fact that pit– and bal– referred originally to different parts or aspects of a particular land-holding. The element pit, or more properly pett, has a Pictish provenance; importantly, however, most of the second, or specific, elements are Gaelic, making these settlements not Pictish but Gaelic place-names. There are about 300 pit-names mostly in eastern Scotland, and they demonstrate the range of Gaelic-speakers in the tenth century as Alba expanded from its western heartlands in Argyll to the area between the Dornoch Firth in the north and the Firth of Forth in the south. In time baile became the usual Gaelic term for a farm settlement and the element can be found all over Scotland wherever Gaelic was spoken, including the Lowlands.

Gaelic tulach is common in place-names throughout Ireland and Scotland; in eastern Scotland it can take the form Tully/Tilly (sometimes with –ie), such as Tillybardine in Angus and Tullymurdoch near Alyth, and its basic meaning is ‘mound, hillock’. It may sometimes be classified as a ‘habitational mound; mound suitable for habitation’. However, there is some evidence that in Ireland tulach can also have the meaning of ‘assembly mound, mound of judgment’, and this may also be the case in Scotland.

Tullochcurran first comes on record in 1232 as Petcarene and Tulahourene which suggests that there is some kind of phenomenon (called generic element variation by place-name scholars) that we saw occurring between pit– and bal– in Balvarran. The specific element –curran may derived from Gaelic carran, genitive carrain ‘spurrey, a weed growing among corn; survey grass’. It seems unlikely that it would be Gaelic curran ‘carrot’! There is a Loch Curran 2 km west of Tullochcurran. A loch with a personal name is Loch Charles near Blackcraig Castle on Stage 1 of the Cateran Trail.

Just north of Tullochcurran is a hill called Creag Thearlaich ‘Charles’ Loch’ – it is not known what link there may be between Creag

Thearlaich and Loch Charles. The landscape of the Cateran Trail has

always been a place of work. Before the area was cleared of people and given over to sheep in the late eighteenth century, the seasons would have affected where people worked. In the summer months, while the crops were growing, the cattle and other animals would have been moved up onto the higher grounds in a process called transhumance – the seasonal transfer of livestock to another area, called sheilings in Scots; airigh or ruighe in Gaelic).

Stones from a ruined shieling in Glen Beanie near Glenshee, photo Clare Cooper

This was important both economically and socially in the Highlands and Islands, and lasted longer there than it did in the Lowlands.


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The movement was largely undertaken by younger men, the women and children of the settlements, often for up to six weeks at a time – for the young men and women these were places of courting. The remains of sheiling huts where they stayed can be found dotted all over the Highlands. The main sheiling ground along the Cateran Trail, based on place-names, seems to have been in the area between Glenshee and Strathardle. Ruigh Chonnuill ‘Connall’s sheiling’ is found in this area. We do not know who Connall was, but he may possibly be a character from the Feinian legends which are found in other parts of Glenshee (see the Mini Trail booklet), or someone named from these legends. There are other sheiling areas marked on the map near Creag an Dubh Shluic, Creag Bhreac, and Elrig, but none of these are named.

Near the sheiling grounds there is a small stone circle called Fàire na Pàitig; it seems on the face of it to mean ‘watch hill of the butter’. It is not clear in practice what this actually means. It could be a place where milk was collected and made into butter, however, the usual Gaelic word for butter is ìm. It is possible that the place is so called because of some now lost legend attached to it. Milking of cows would have taken place near Cnoc na

Cuinneige ‘hillock of the milking pail’. The very name Glenshee ‘glen of the

fairies’ conjures up in the minds of many people a glen teeming with legends, especially those of Finn mac Cumhail. These are discussed more fully in the Mini Trail booklet, but one of the most famous legends involves Ben Gulabin, an 806 metre mountain near Spittal of Glenshee.

Fingal and Corban Cargla by Alexander Runciman © National Galleries of Scotland

Ostensibly it means ‘snouty mountain’, and on viewing from the south-east the south-western side of the mountain looks for all the world like a pig’s snout. One ballad which narrates a legend, Laoidh Dhiarmaid (The Lay of Diarmaid), tells how Diarmaid, a colleague of Finn, dies on Ben Gulabin at the head of Glenshee, killed by a boar. Near the bottom of

Ben Gulabin, near Spittal of Glenshee, is a stone circle which has the name of Grave of Diarmaid.

Elrig and Ben Earb are reminders that it was not all work, at least not for the landlords and their retainers. Hunting was the main sport of the upper classes in the Middle Ages. Ben Earb is ‘roe mountain’, while Elrig is an Old Gaelic word elerc, later Gaelic eileirig ‘deer trap’. The absence of this word in Irish Gaelic suggests that there may be a Pictish or British provenance for the word, and we know from Pictish symbol stones that hunting took place in that period. Near Elrig is An Lairig ‘the pass’, on a route between Spittal of Glenshee and Enochdhu.

Names were needed to navigate and make sense of an area full of hills and valleys of various sizes and shapes, as well as numerous bogs, and rivers and burns. Gaelic, much more than English, is a language of the landscape and so it has a profusion of generic terms for different parts of the landscape.

Many of these terms can often now be contained in the names of settlements, but the

LANDSCAPES


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names themselves relate to landscape features. This stage of the Cateran Trail begins to move from a tracing a route through a valley bottom to an upland landscape of hills and corries. However, there are still a few names along the valley floor that remind us that exploiting the landscape was key to survival.

Gaelic dail is a ‘water-meadow or haughland’. There are two on this stage of the Cateran Trail, Dalreoch ‘speckled or greyish haugh or water-meadow’ and Dalnagairn ‘haugh or water-meadow of the cairns’. These are level areas beside the river, which are prone to flooding and so enriched by nutrients making them suitable for grazing or growing hay for winter feed, and as such they were very important places in the Middle Ages and beyond.

Dalnagairn is said to have been the site of a battle involving caterans in 1392. Inverchroskie and Ardchroskie lie near Allt Doire nan Eun ‘burn of Doire nan Eun’ – the element inver or Gaelic inbhir in the name Inverchroskie suggests the original name of the burn was called Allt Crosgaidh ‘crossing burn’ or some such.

Doire nan Eun – anglicised as Dirnanean – means ‘thicket of the birds’. We can only speculate as to what kind of bird is meant, but

on Arran the Gaelic word eun ‘bird’ can mean ‘eagle’ in place-names.

Calamanach seems to be ‘pigeon place’, and this may have been a place where pigeons were kept; pigeons were a delicacy in the Middle Ages.

Enochdhu, or in Gaelic aonach dubh ‘black assembly’ is one of a number of names along the Cateran Trail that has a colour in its name. Often it is not clear why the namers chose a particular colour for a particular place, in this case it could be the vegetation or the underlying geology. The spelling of dhu, rather than the correct dubh (pronounced ‘doo’) in the name, however, is pseudo-Gaelic and is simply to make place-name look more Gaelic that it actually is; dhu is never found in Gaelic dictionaries.

Another colour name in the uplands between Enochdhu and Spittal of Glenshee is found in Menachban ‘white Menach’, which is probably meadhonach ‘middle place’. What was bàn or ‘white’ about the place is not known, unless it was to do with the vegetation or geology.

Often Gaelic words for the human body are transferred to the landscape – Uchd na h-Anaile ‘rounded breast-shaped hill of the rest’ and Uchd nan Carn ‘rounded breast-

shaped hill of the cairns’, are examples of this phenomenon.

There are two features with Gaelic breac ‘speckled’ in their names – Tom Breac, near Balvarran and Creag Bhreac in the hills on the way to Spittal of Glenshee. It is not always clear what is meant by ‘speckled’, whether it has to do with the vegetation or the geology – what makes one hill speckled and its neighbour not…?

A view of Glenshee from the Cateran Trail, photo, courtesy of Perth & Kinross Heritage Trust


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Rather than, as is customary, arrange the entries alphabetically, I have decided to arrange the entries as far as possible as they are encountered while walking on the ground. They are grouped in five main stages, plus a Mini Trail, and these stages follow those shown on the Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust website at www.pkct.org/cateran-trail. However, there are short alternative routes shown in the 2007 booklet Explore the Cateran Trail by Chic Leven and Ken Roberts and these are shown below (as a, b, or c).

Mini Trail: Circular route – Kirkmichael via Spittal of Glenshee

and Lair Stage 1: Blairgowrie to Kirkmichael Stage 2: Kirkmichael to Spittal of Glenshee Stage 3: Spittal of Glenshee to Kirkton of Glenisla Stage 3a: Invereddrie to Forter Stage 3b Forter to Kirkton of Glenisla Stage 3c: Cray to Kirkton of Glenisla Stage 4: Kirkton of Glenisla to Alyth Stage 5: Alyth to Blairgowrie Stage 5a: Alyth to Blairgowrie Abbreviations A Antiquity ALY Alyth ANG Angus

BDY Bendochy BGE Blairgowrie Brit. British CAP Caputh GLI Glenisla KLC Kinloch KRK Kirkmichael MOU Moulin PER Perthshire RTR Rattray Sc Scots ScEng Scottish English ScG Gaelic SSE Scottish Standard English

A four-figure grid reference has been given along with the following abbreviations indicating what the name refers to: A = antiquity; O = other (e.g. bridge, road), R = relief feature; S = settlement; V = vegetation. Note also that there was an alteration of the parish boundaries along the southern edge of the study area as a result of the 1891 changes to the parish and county boundaries by the Boundary Commissioners for Scotland under the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1889 (see Shennan 1892). 2

2 This difficult to access book, giving details of the changes in the county and parish boundaries, can be seen at http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/digital-volumes/published-gazetteers-and-atlases/hay-shennan-county-and-parish-boundaries-1892

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In the text of the main discussion place-names with ALY (e.g. Blacklunans ALY) indicate that the early forms and linguistic analysis can be found in the survey of Alyth parish; likewise those place-names with KRK (e.g. Spittal of Glenshee KRK) indicates they can be found in the survey of Kirkmichael parish. Note that in the analysis line the Gaelic spellings conform to the modern spellings found in the SQA Gaelic Orthographic Conventions.3

A name preceded by * indicates a hypothetical unattested form.

3 http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/files_ccc/SQA-Gaelic_Orthographic_Conventions-En-e.pdf


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STAGE 2: Kirkmichael to Spittal of Glenshee

KIRKMICHAEL KRK PS NO080600 Kylmichel 1274 Bagimond (Dunlop edn), 47 Kylmighel 1275 Bagimond (Dunlop edn), 73 abbethayn de Kyrchmyhel in Strathardolf’ [rubric] c.1279 Dunf. Reg. no. 227 abbethayn’ de Kylmichel c.1279 Dunf. Reg. no. 227 ecclesiam Sancti Michaelis Kirkmichaell 1510 RMS ii no.3472 Kirkmichaell Parioche 1684 RPC 3rd series vol viii, 540 Kirkmichael 1783 Stobie Kirkmichael 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXXII

ScG cill + saint’s name Michael ScG cill means church and it is one of the most productive ecclesiastical naming elements in Scottish Gaelic (Butter 2007, 12). However, its main distribution is in the west, particularly from Skye to Galloway, with large clusters in Argyll and around Glasgow. These may date from the early to late medieval periods; in the east, including Fife, it is thought that they belong to as early as the eighth century (PNF 5, 329). It is not known exactly when the church of Kirkmichael was founded, but it was certainly before 1183 when the church of Strathardle is granted to Dunfermline Abbey by Willaim I. The church had been dedicated to Michael by 1274. The local Gaels may have called it Kilmichael; but it would appear that the name Kirkmichael is due to the influence of the monks of Dunfermline who would have been Scots speakers. The medieval church was replaced by current church which was built in 1791 (RCAHMS 1990, 88). Near the church is the Priest’s Well, a natural spring.

Michael is one of three archangels, and is farm more popular in place-names that Gabriel or Raphael. Michael was held by the pre-Reformation church to have been the defender of the Church, and chief opponent of Satan; and who assists souls at the hour of death. His feast day is 29th September, and in a field near Kirkmichael the Michaelmas fair was held on that day (Leven and Roberts 2007, 40). The fair became the site of one of the largest cattle markets in Scotland as it was a meeting place for drovers coming from Braemar (Haldane 1952, 130, 147). Nearby is a field called Bannerfield, which was the site of the meeting of the earl of Mar and Marquis of Tullibardine and their men who raised their banner at the start of the 1715 Jacobite Rising (Leven and Roberts 2007, 41). BALNAKILLY KRK S NO074601

Belinkilyie 1615 RMS vii no. 1156 Belmakeilzie 1641 Retours PER no. 498 Belnakeillie 1661 Retours PER no.684 Balnakilly 1783 Stobie Balnakilly 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXXII

ScG baile + ScG an + ScG cill or ScG coille ‘Tounship or farm of the church’. ‘Tounship of the woodland’is also possible, however, Balnakilly sits directly across the River Ardle from the church at Kirkmichael. There is a Balnakeilly near Pitlochry PER, which is the ‘church farm’ of Moulin parish.


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DALNAGAIRN KRK S NO078605 Dalgarne 1470 RMS ii no.1004 Dalnagarn 1506 RMS ii no.2953 terras de Dalnagarne 1510 RMS ii no.3472 ? Dalnagarne 1642 Retours PER no. 499 [in parochia de Muilling (Moulin)] Dalnagairn 1783 Stobie Dalnagairn 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXXII

ScG dail + ScG an + ScG càrn ‘Haugh or water-meadow of the cairns’. The name shows signs of an older form Dail na gCarn containing eclipsis after the genitive plural of the definite article (Watson 1926, 242).

TULLOCHCURRAN COTTAGE KRK S NO070606

Petcarene 1232 Moray Reg. no. 79 [unius dauache terre in Strathardol que appellatur Petcarene ‘a dabhach of land in Strahardle which is called Petcarene’] Tulahourene 1232 C.A. Chrs no. 38 [unam Dauach terre in Strathardel Tulahourene ‘a dabhach of land in Strathardle (called) Tullochcurran’] Tullocurren 1510 RMS ii no. 3472 molendinum de Tullocurren 1510 RMS ii no. 3472 Petcurran 1564 RMS iv no. 1527 [terram de Petcurran alias Petbrain] John Rateray of Tullicurrane 1684 RPC 3rd series vol viii, 541 Tullochcurran 1783 Stobie Tullochcurran 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXXII

ScG tulach + ScG curan or ScG corran ScG tulach is common in place-names throughout Ireland (Flanagan and

Flanagan 1994, s.v.) and Scotland, and its basic meaning is ‘mound, hillock’. It may sometimes be classified as a ‘habitational mound; mound suitable for habitation’ (PNF 5, 519-20). However, there is some evidence that in Ireland tulach can also have the meaning of ‘assembly mound, mound of judgment’ (O’Grady 2008, 144-163; Swift 1996, 19–20, 21), and this may also be the case in Scotland. Tullochcurran first comes on record in 1232 as Petcarene and Tulahourene which suggests that there is some kind of generic element variation occurring (see Taylor 1997 for discussion of this phenomenon; and also Balvarran below). The specific element –curran may derived from ScG carran, gen. carrain spurrey, a weed growing among corn; survey grass’. It seems unlikely that it would be ScG curran ‘carrot’! There is a Loch Curran 2 km west of Tullochcurran, but it is not clear if the tulach takes its name from the loch or vice versa. TULLOCHCURRAN BURN KRK W NO081592

Tullochcurran Burn 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXXII

en Tullochcurran + Sc burn Allt Loch Curran flows out of Loch Curran into the Tullochcurran Burn about 1 km west of the settlement of Tullochcurran.

MILTON OF BALVARRAN KRK S NO072613

Milton 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXXII Sc milntoun ‘Farmtoun associated with a mill’. Mills were important places in


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medieval and early-modern Scotland. It was here that the peasants were compelled to to take the grain they had grown to be processed. In the language of the time, the peasants were thirled (bound) to the mill and had to pay a heavy multure or duty of a proportion of the grain or meal payable to the proprietor or tenant of a mill on corn ground (DOST). This made the miller an important figure in the local society, but also an unpopular one, for the multure was resented and many peasants tried to evade it, and were liable to fines if caught (Smout 1969, 120; Fenton 1999, 111-12).

CREAG THEARLAICH KRK R NO053614

Craig-Chaich 1783 Stobie Creag Thearlaich 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXXII

ScG creag + pn Teàrlach The current form means ‘Charles’ crag’; it is not clear what the earliest form from Stobie represents at this stage.

BALVARRAN KRK S NO073620

? Petverren 1641 Retours PER no. 498 ? Pitverren 1661 Retours PER no. 684 Balvarran 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXXII

ScG baile + ? ScG baran or ?ScG barran ‘Tounship of the baron’ or ‘tounship of the fence, hedge’. This seems

originally to have contained ScG pett ‘farm, land-holding’, which was later replaced by ScG baile with roughly the same meaning. Alternatively, this may well be a case of the replacement of the element pit- by baile- owing to the meaning of ScG pit ‘vagina’, because ScG peit

(or pett) unstressed was sounded like pit which was a ‘rude’ word, so it tended to get replaced by baile. The specific looks like original (or at least earlier) stressed vowel is e rather than a, and may be ScG bearan ‘young man’. Local tradition, however, ascribed the place to ‘Am Baran Ruadh’ or 'The Red Baron', who seems to have been Alexander Ruadh of Atholl who died after 1451.

TOMBREAC KRK S NO064620

Tombraik 1783 Stobie Tombreac 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXXII

ScG tom + ScG breac ‘Speckled hillock, knoll’. This is now a deserted settlement and presumably sits on or near a hill which has or had a speckled appearance, perhaps due to geology or vegetation.

DALREOCH KRK S NO062623

Dalreach 1641 Retours PER no. 498 Dalreach 1661 Retours PER no. 684 Dalriach 1783 Stobie Dalreach 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXXII

ScG dail + ScG riabhach ‘Speckled or greyish haugh or water-meadow’. ScG riabhach can also

mean striped, perhaps because of cultivation rigs.


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ARDCHROSKIE MOU S NO066627 Achroskie 1684 RPC 3rd series vol viii, 541 Ardthroskie 1783 Stobie Ardchroskie 1977 OS 1:10,000 NO06SE

ScG àrd + ScG crosg + ScG –adh ‘Height of the crossing stream’. The –adh affix can mean ‘place of’ or ‘stream, water of’.

INVERCHROSKIE MOU S NO064627

Inuercrosky more 1364 Coupar Angus Chrs no. 110 Inuercrosky beg 1364 Coupar Angus Chrs no. 110 Innerthroskie 1608 Retours PER no. 184 villas et terras de Wester et Midle Innerchroskies 1641 Retours PER no. 498 in bina parte terrarum de Inverchroskie 1642 Retours PER no. 520 bina parte molendini de Innerchroskie 1642 Retours PER no. 520 Wester et Midle Innerchroskies 1661 Retours PER no. 684 James Iviot, portioner of Wester Innerchroskie 1684 RPC 3rd series vol viii, 542 Inverchroskie 1783 Stobie Inverchroskie 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXXII

ScG inbhir + en *Croskie ‘Mouth of the *Croskie’. *Croskie is a ‘burn associated with a crossing (over the hills)’. Inverchroskie lies nearly 700 metres north-west of the confluence of the Inverchroskie Burn with the River Ardle, and is at one end of the direct route from Strathardle to Spittal of Glenshee.

INVERCHROSKIE BURN MOU W NO069620 Inverchroskie Burn 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXXII

en Invercroskie + Sc burn This burn was presumably called *Croskie.

ENOCHDHU MOU S NO062627

Enachdow 1642 Retours PER no. 520 John Rateray of Enoche Mylne 1684 RPC 3rd series vol viii, 541 John Robertson of Wester Enoche 1684 RPC 3rd series vol viii, 541 Alexander McIntosh, portioner of Easter Enoche 1684 RPC 3rd series vol viii, 542 Ennochdow 1783 Stobie Ennochdow 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXXII

ScG aonach + ScG dubh ‘Black assembly place’.

KINDROGAN BRIDGE MOU O NO061625

Kindrogan Bridge 1900 OS 6 inch 2nd edn PER & CLA XXXII.NW

en Kindrogan + SSE bridge

KINDROGAN MOU S NO054629 Wester Kingdrogine 1642 Retours PER no. 520 Eister Kingdrogin 1642 Retours PER no. 520 Alexander McCowll of Kindrogene 1684 RPC 3rd series vol viii, 541 Kindrogan 1783 Stobie Kindrogan 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXXII


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ScG ceann + ? It is not known what this name represents, other than that the kin- element is probably ScG ceann ‘end; head’.

STOTHERD’S CROFT MOU S NO058633

Stoderscroft 1642 Retours PER no. 520 Stotherd’s Croft 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXXII

Sc stodhird + Sc croft A stodhird was a person who had the task of taking care of horses in

a stud (DOST). The office of stodhirdrie is mentioned at least twice in the rentals of Coupar Angus in 1557 (C.A. Rental ii, 142, 176). The office can be seen in its Latin form, studarius, on the lands of Forter in 1470 (C.A. Rental i, 157).

DIRNANEAN MOU S NO065635

Darmymean 1642 Retours PER no. 520 Dirnanean 1783 Stobie Dirnanean 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXXII

ScG doire + ScG an + ScG eun ‘Thicket of the birds’. It is not known what kind of birds are implied in the name. ScG eun ‘bird’ can mean ‘eagle’ in place-names (Fraser 1999, 157).

ALLT DOIRE NAN EUN KRK W NO0764

Allt Doire nan Eun 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER and CLA XXXII

G allt + en Doire nan Eun ‘Burn of Doire nan Eun’. See Dirnanean, above, for meaning of Doire nan Eun.

DRUMCHREAN MOU S NO063636

Drumchrian 1783 Stobie Drumchrean 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXXII

ScG druim + ? ScG crìon or ? ScG crean ‘Dry, withered ridge’ or ‘market-place ridge’.

CREAG NA BALLAIGE KRK R NO077636

Creag na Ballaige 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXXII

ScG creag + ScG an + ? ScG ballag ? ‘Crag of the skull’. Dwelly states that ScG ballag, genitive ballaig, is ‘skull, the cranium; egg-shell; neat little woman; or a diminutive of ball’.

HOME FARM MOU S NO066637

Home Farm 1900 OS 6 inch 2nd edn PER & CLA XXXII.NE

SSE home + SSE farm

MENACHBAN KRK R NO0864 Menach 1642 Retours PER no. no.520 [ Minnoch c.1750 Roy Menachban 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER and CLA XXXII


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en Menach + G bàn ‘White Menach’. Across the hill from Menachban is a deserted settlement of Menachmore ‘Big Menach’ and a corry called Coire Menach. The Menach-element could be G meadhan + G –ach ‘middle place’. The area of Menachmore and Menachban is almost halfway between Strathardle and Glen Shee. The Roy form throws some doubt on this, however.

CALAMANACH MOU R NO066650

Calamanach 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXIII

ScG calman + ScG –ach ‘Pigeon, dove place’. Dwelly has calaman as a variant on ScG calman ‘dove, pigeon’. This may have been a place where pigeons were kept; pigeons were a delicacy in the Middle Ages. There is no indication of a doocot or dove cote nearby.

CALAMANACH WOOD MOU V NO073651

Calamanach Wood 1900 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXIII.NE

en Calamanach + SSE wood

ALLT DUBHAGAN MOU W NO074642 Allt Dubhagan 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXIII

ScG allt + ScG dubhag ‘Burn of the deep, dark pools’.

RUIGH CHONNUILL KRK S NO0865 Rinnaconnar c.1750 Roy Rinnaconer 1783 Stobie Ruidh Chonnuill 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER and CLA XXIII

G ruighe + pn Conall ‘Conall’s sheiling’. This may commemorate someone with the name Conall, possibly a character from the Finian legends.

FÀIRE NA PÀITIG MOU A NO074661

Fàire na Pàitig 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXIII

ScG faire + ScG an + ScG ? ‘Watch or look-out of the ?’. The OS have a slight mistake in the spelling of faire ‘watch, look-out’. They have fàire (note length mark above à), which means ‘horizon, skyline’ (Watson 2012, 108), although Dwelly says it can mean ‘height’. Pàitig is a puzzle. Leven and Roberts, in their guide to the Cateran Trail, say they have consulted Gaelic scholars at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig who drew a blank, noting that the OS were sometimes unreliable in the accuracy of their spellings of place-names (Leven and Roberts 2007, 52). Dwelly has ScG paiteag meaning ‘butter’. The Canmore website states that ‘this small stone setting is situated on a low rounded knoll immediately outside the new forestry plantation on the SW flank of Faire na Paitig. The N and E stones are still upright, measuring 0.55m and 0.4m in height respectively, but the other two are both now leaning towards the NW; when upright the W stone would be at least 0.5m high and the S stone 0.4m high’ (https://canmore.org.uk/site/27453).


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BLÀR ACHAIDH MOU R NO064668 Blàr Achaidh 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER & CLA XXIII

ScG blàr + ScG achadh ‘Muir field’. ScG achadh ‘expanse of ground, pasture, field’ is found nearly all over Scotland and is one of those diagnostic elements, along with baile, that can tells us about the extent of where Gaelic was spoken. A distribution map publish by W.F.H. Nicholaisen shows that the element achadh is found in most parts of Scotland except the south-east and in Orkney and Shetland (2001, 181). In the Lowlands and in eastern Scotland achadh is often reduced to ach or auch/auchen, such as Auchenchapel in Glenisla, which is also on the Cateran Trail.

UCHD NA H-ANAILE KRK R NO0866

Uchd na h-Anaile 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER and CLA XXIII

G uchd + G an + G anail ‘Rounded breast-shaped hill of the rest’. G anail is ‘breath, rest, breeze, air’ and the name may mean ‘a place where you rest, take a breath’, likely on a road or pass where the going is steep.

ELRIG KRK R NO0766

Alrick Hill 1783 Stobie Elrig 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER and CLA XXIII

Ellrick derives from OG elerc, later G eileirig ‘deer trap’. The absence of this word in Irish Gaelic suggest that there may be a Pictish or British provenence for the word (Taylor 2008, 296), although it may derive from OI erelc, deriving from air- ‘before, in front’ + selc ‘hunting’ (Kelly 1997, 277).

UCHD NAN CARN KRK R NO0967 Uchd nan Carn 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER and CLA XXIII

G uchd + G an + càrn ‘Rounded breast-shaped hill of the cairns’.

COIRE AN LAOIGH KRK R NO0966

Coire an Laoigh 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER and CLA XXIII

G coire + G an + G laogh ‘Corry of the calf’. CREAG BHREAC KRK R NO0768

Creag Bhreac 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER and CLA XXXIV

G creag + G breac ‘Speckled or spotted crag’. The name might refer to the vegetation or to the geology of the crag – see Drummond (2007, 114) who states that breac signifies a hill ‘where patches of scree and heather, greys and greens and browns, break out from under each other’. Murray follows this arguing that ‘spotted mountains are distinguished by their patches of heather, blueberry or white grasses mixed in with scree’ (Murray 2014, 198).

BEN EARB KRK R NO0769

Ben-erb 1783 Stobie Ben Earb 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER and CLA XXIII

G beinn + G earb(a) ‘Roe-deer mountain’.


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AN LAIRIG KRK R NO0968 An Lairig 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER and CLA XXIII

G an + G lairig ‘The pass’. This is a pass on a route between Spittal of Glenshee and Enochdhu.

ALLT AN DUBH SHLUIC KRK W NO0867

Allt an Dubh Shluic 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER and CLA XXIII

G allt + G an + G dubh + G sloc ‘Burn of the black pit’. G sloc can also mean ‘hollow; hole; grave; marsh’.

CREAG AN DUBH SHLUIC KRK R NO0968

?? Clash-migash 1783 Stobie Creag an Dubh Shluic 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER and CLA XXXIII

G creag + G an + G dubh + G sloc See Allt an Dubh Shluic KRK above.

CNOC NA CUINNEIGE KRK NO0969

Cnoc na Cuinneige 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER and CLA XXIII

G cnoc + G an + G cuinneag ‘Hillock of the milking pail’.

COIRE LAIRIGE KRK R NO1068 Coire Lairige 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER and CLA XXIII

G coire + G lairig ‘Pass corry’. See An Lairig above.

BEN GULABIN KRK R NO1073

wenn ʒwlbin c.1500 Meek 1990, 352 [A glenn so fa wenn ʒwlbin ʒvrm (for A[n] glean so fa Bheinn Ghuilbainn ghuirm ‘this glen below green Ben Gulabin’)] Ben Ghulapan c.1750 Roy Beinn-Ghulbhuinn 1791-99 OSA xv, 507 Beinn-Ghulbhuinn 1842 NSA x, 786 Beinn Gulabin 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER and CLA XIV

G beinn + G gulba ‘Snout mountain’. See Meek (1998, 153-58), and also the section above on Fionn mac Cumhaill [page no.] for discussion on this name in the Fian legends. The earliest form, wenn ʒwlbin (pronounced something like ven yule-bin), contained in the lines of the poem Gleann Síodh an gleann so rém thaoibh4 ‘the glen beside me is Glenshee’, represents the original Gaelic from about 1500 written in the Book of the Dean of Lismore, but it is written not in a Gaelic script, but in the Scots orthography of the time (Meek 1990, 348).

4 The poem has been dated to c.1500 by McLeon and Bateman (2007 no. 59).


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GLEN SHEE KRK R NO1462 glensche 1463 C.A. Rental i, 131 Glennschee c.1500 Meek 1990, 352 Glen Shie 1590s Pont 27 chapel at Glen-shy 1590s Pont 27 Glen schie 1608 RMS vi no. 2106 Glen schie 1638 RMS ix no. 850 Glen Shee c.1750 Roy Glen Shee 1783 Stobie Glenshee 1791-99 OSA xv, 506 Glen Shee 1794 Ainslie Glenshee 1842 NSA x, 785 Glen Shee 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER and CLA XXIV

G gleann + G sìth ‘Glen of peace’ or ‘glen of fairies’.

SPITTAL OF GLENSHEE KRK S NO1170

Spittale of Glensche 1542 Fraser, Wemyss no. 197 Spittale of Glensche 1552 Fraser, Wemyss no. 206 Spittel 1590s Pont 27 Spittel 1615 RMS vii no. 1156 [‘the toun and lands of the Spittal with the mill, the mill-lands etc with the crofts of the same, the Chapel-crofts’ (villa et terras de Spittell, cum molendino, terris molendinariis &c., cum croftis earundem lie Chapell-croftis)] Spittell 1629 RMS viii no. 1393 [‘toun and lands of Spittal with the mill, mill-lands etc and the crofts of this kind (i.e. pertaining to the chapel) the Chapel-crofts’ (villa et terras de Spittell cum molendino, terris molendinariis &c., cum croftis hujusmodi lie Chappell-croftis)]

Spittill 1641 Retours PER no. 498 [‘toun and lands of Spittal with the mill, and the crofts of this kind (i.e. pertaining to the chapel) called Chapel-crofts’ (villa et terras de Spittill cum molendino, et croftis hujusmodi nuncupatis Chappill-croftis)] Spittle c.1750 Roy Spittal of Glenshee 1783 Stobie the spittal of Glenshee 1791-99 OSA xv, 541 Spittal of Glenshee 1794 Ainslie Spittal of Glenshee 1867 OS 6 inch 1st edn PER and CLA XXIII

Sc spittal + Sc of + en Glenshee There is no evidence of a medieval or early modern hospital here (RCAHMS 1994, 88). What we have instead is a hospice for travellers on the road from Blairgowrie in Lowland eastern Perthshire to Braemar in Highland Deeside. See Watson and Allan 1984, 142 where they have a short discussion of Spittal of Glenmuick, a hospice on the road from Glen Clova in Angus to Ballater in Aberdeenshire. The element spittal is evidence for the existence of either a hospital (i.e. a place of hospitality or rest; not a medical facility), lands associated with a hospital, or an inn for travellers; for a recent argument for the use of spittal as evidence for properties in the earldom of Lennox belonging to the Knights Hospitaller and Knights Templar see McNiven (2013). The minister for Kirkmichael, writing in OSA, states that ‘in Glenshee is a chapel, where divine service is performed by the minister of the parish, once in four or five weeks’ (OSA xv, 515). See Old Spittal Farm KRK.


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Ainslie Map of the County of Forfar or Shire of Angus by John Ainslie (1794). Alexander, W. M., 1952, The Place-Names of Aberdeenshire (Third Spalding Club). Arbroath Lib., Liber S.Thome de Aberbrothoc, Bannatyne Club, 1848–56. Bagimond’s Roll (Dunlop), ‘Bagimond’s Roll: Statement of the Tenths of the Kingdom of Scotland’, ed. A. I. Dunlop, SHS Misc. vi (1939), 3–77. Black, G.F., 1946, The surnames of Scotland : their origin, meaning, and history, New York. Butter, R., 2007, ‘Cill- names and saints in Argyll : a way towards understanding the early church in Dál Riata?’ unpublished PhD thesis, Glasgow University. C. A. Chrs. Charters of the Abbey of Coupar Angus, ed. D. E. Easson, 2 vols, SHS 1947. C. A. Rent. Rental Book of the Cistercian Abbey of Cupar-Angus, ed. Charles Rogers, 2 vols., Grampian Club, 1879–80. Dunf. Reg. Registrum de Dunfermelyn, Bannatyne Club, 1842

Dwelly The Illustrated Gaelic-English Dictionary, Edward Dwelly 1901–11 (9th edn, 1977). Fenton, A., 1999, Scottish Country Life (East Linton, revised edn; 1st edn. 1976). Flanagan, D. and Flanagan, L., 1994, Irish Place Names (Dublin). Fraser, I. A., 1999, The Place-Names of Arran, The Arran Society of Glasgow, Glasgow. Fraser, Wemyss Memorials of the Family of Wemyss of Wemyss, ed. W. Fraser, 3 vols. (Edinburgh 1888). Haldane, A.R.B., 1952, The Drove Roads of Scotland, Edinburgh. Kelly, F., 1997, Early Irish Farming (Early Irish Law Series vol. IV) (Dublin). Leven, C., and Roberts, K., 2007, Explore the Cateran Trail, Coupar Angus. McNiven, P., 2013a, ‘Spittal place-names in Menteith and Strathendrick: evidence of crusading endowments?’ in Innes Review 64, 23-38.


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Meek, D.E., 1990, ‘The Death of Diarmaid in Scottish and Irish Tradition’ in Celtica 21, 335-361. Meek, D.E., 1998, ‘Place-names and Literature: Evidence from the Gaelic Ballads’ in S. Taylor (ed), The Uses of Place-names (St Andrews), 147-168. Moray Reg. Registrum Episcopatus Moraviensis, Bannatyne Club 1837. Murray, J., 2014, Reading the Gaelic Landscape/ Leughadh Aghaidh na Tìre, Dunbeath. Nicolaisen, W. F. H., 2001, Scottish Place-Names (Edinburgh). NSA The New Statistical Account of Scotland, by the ministers of the respective parishes, under the superintendence of a committee of the Society for the Benefit of the Sons and Daughters of the Clergy (Edinburgh 1845). O’Grady, O.J., 2008, ‘The Setting and Practice of Open-air Judicial Assemblies in Medieval Scotland: a Multidisciplinary Study’ Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Glasgow. Ordnance Survey 6 inch 1st edn PER and CLA PNF 5 The Place-names of Fife: Discussion, Glossaries and Edited Texts with Addenda and Corrigenda of Volumes 1-4, S. Taylor and G. Márkus (Donington).

PNKNR The Place-Names of Kinross-shire. Series: Survey of Scottish Place-Names, 7, Taylor, S., McNiven, P., and Williamson, E. (Donington, 2017). Pont 27 Timothy Pont’s Strathardle, Glenshee and Glenericht (1590s). RCAHMS, 1994, North East Perth: an archaeological landscape (Edinburgh). Retours Inquisitionum ad Capellam Domini Regis Retornatarum, quae in publicis archivis Scotiae adhuc servantur, Abbreviatio, ed. T. Thomson (3 vols., 1811–16). RMS Registrum Magni Sigilli Regum Scottorum ed. J. M. Thomson & others (Edinburgh 1882–1914). Ross, N., 1939, Heroic Poetry from the Book of the Dean of Lismore, Scottish Gaelic Texts Society. Roy 1753 The Military Survey of Scotland, 1747–55, supervised by William Roy. Fair copy (for ‘northern’ Scotland, including Fife) and Protracted Copy (for southern Scotland) printed in The Great Map: the Military Survey of Scotland 1747–55: William Roy, with introductory essays by Yolande Hodson, Chris Tabraham and Charles Withers (Edinburgh 2007). Also available on-line at http://www.nls.uk/maps/roy/. RPC The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland [1545 – 1625], ed. J.H. Burton et al. (Edinburgh 1877-98).


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Shennan, H., 1892, Boundaries of Counties and Parishes in Scotland (Edinburgh). Smout, T.C., 1969, A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830, (Fontana Press edn, 1985). Stobie Map of the counties of Perth and Clackmannan: James Stobie, 1783 (London). Swift, C., 1996, ‘Pagan monuments and Christian legal centres in early Meath’, Ríocht na Midhe 9, no. 2, 1–26. Taylor, Simon, 1997, ‘Generic-Element Variation, with Special Reference to Eastern Scotland’, Nomina 20, 5–22 Taylor, S., 2008, ‘The toponymic landscape of the Gaelic Notes in the Book of Deer’, in Studies on the Book of Deer, ed. K. Forsyth (Dublin), 275–308. Watson, Angus, 2012, The Essential Gaelic–English, English–Gaelic Dictionary, compiled by Angus Watson (Edinburgh). Watson, W.J., 1926, The History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland (Edinburgh and London; reprinted with an Introduction by Simon Taylor, Edinburgh 2004; and, with an extended Introduction, Edinburgh 2011).


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Image, courtesy of Christopher Dingwall

Place Names of the Cateran Trail was commissioned by Cateran’s Common Wealth www.commonculture.org.uk in 2017.

Researcher: Dr Peter McNiven Producer: Clare Cooper Designer: Andrew Hunter Photography and Images: credits/sources appear with each photo/image. All Perth & Kinross Heritage Trust and HES photos are copyright. Map of the Cateran Trail: Courtesy of Perth & Kinross Countryside Trust Thanks to: Alison Hall, Perth & Kinross Heritage Trust; Dr Simon Taylor, Celtic & Gaelic, University of Glasgow.

Stage Two: Kirkmichael to Spittal of Glenshee Place Names ......Enochdhu to the Spittal of Glenshee...

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Transcript of Stage Two: Kirkmichael to Spittal of Glenshee Place Names ......Enochdhu to the Spittal of Glenshee...